The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-02-23

| shall be two pruning hooks. Down with
! Molo h and up with Christ! Let no more
| warehouses eat out Of the manger where Jesus
/ was born.
Peace Forever roll off the skv the black
! Pillars of smoke from the Marengos and
Salamancas and Borodinos and Gettysburgs
| of earth! And right after them, roll into
| the heavens the reaceful vapors from the
chimneys of farmhouses. and asylums, and
| churches, and capitals of Christian nations.
| and. as the sunlight strikes through
| these vapors they will write in letters
of jet and gold oil over the sky from horizon
to zenith: "Glory to God in the highest. and
on earth peace. good will to men!" Then let
all the men, of-war fire broadside. and all
the forts thunder forth resounding volley,
and the earth be girdled with the cannonade
over the final victory of the truth.
While thinking Of these things looked out
from my window, and the wind was violently
blowing; And saw from many chimneys
the smoke tossed in the air and whirled in
great velocity, volume after volume, fold
after fold, and carried on the swift wind
were the great pillars Of smoke. And helped
by Solomon in the text saw the speed OF
the church symbolized. Do you realize
the momentum the Church of God is underi
Why, the smoke OF q chimney on the top OF
ing sixty miles the hour, IS slow as com.
pared with the celebrity Of good influences
For fifty-nine centuries the devil had it his
own way among the nations. Nearly all the
great missionary movements have been
started within the century, and see what one
century has done to recover the world from
firty-nine centuries of devastation. What
great revivals What mighty churches
What saved millions! What advancing civ
ilizat:onl In all the United States, Great
Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy
full freedom to worship God according to con.
A1ono bo nf China md
Africa the batteries are planted which are to
take all these empires for God and civiliza-
tion. From the ruins Of Babylon and AS
syria, and Nineveh and the valleys Of the
Nile, confirmatiors have been exhumed prov.
ing to oil fair-minded men that the Bible is
the truest book ever written. The mytholo-
gies of Egypt were found to have embodied
in them the knowledge of mans expulsion
from Paradise, and the sacrifice Of great
emancipation Moses account.of the creation,
.corroborated by the hammer Of Christian
geologists; the oldest profane writers like
Hiromus, Helauicua, and Berosus, confirm
ing the Bible account of ancient longevity;
account of destroyed Sodom and Gomor-
rah; Tacitus and Porphyry telling the
same story Of Christ as Matthew and Luke
told: Macrobius telling of the massacre Of
children in Bethlehem, and Phlegon sketch
ing the darkness at the crucifxion. 1t is de-
monstrated to all honest men that it is not so
certain that William Cullen Byrant wrote
as that God by the hand of prophet and
apostle wrote the Bible. All the wise men
in science and law and medicine and litera-
ture and merchandise are gradually coming
to believe in Christianity, and soon their
will be no people who disbelieve in it except
those conspicuous for lack OF brain or men
with two families who do not like the Bible
because it rebukes their swinish propenSities.
The time is fastening when there will be
no infidels left except libertines and harlots,
and murderers. Millions Of Christians where
once there were thousands, and thousands
where once there were hundreds. What a
bright evening this, the evening Of
the nineteenth century; and the TWEEN,
thirteen years from now, will, in my opinion.
bring universal victory for Christ and the
Church, that now is marching on with step
double-quick, or,if you prefer the figure OF
the text is being swept on in the mighty
gales of blessing, imposing and grand and
majestic and swift, like pillars of smoke
the door, a door more glorious than that OF
the Temple Of Hercules, which had two Pill.
lars, and one was gold and the other emerald
Come in to-day! Come in and be one Of the
eternal victors! The world you leave behind
is a poor world, and it will burn and pass off
like pillars of smoke. Whether the final con-
flagration will start in the coal mines Of
Pennsylvania, which, in some places, have for
many years been burning and eating into
the heart Of the mountains: or whether it
shall begin near the California geysers, or
whether from out the furnaces OF CotopaI
and Vesuvius and Stromboli, it shall burst
forth upon the astonished nations. make
that we stand on the lid Of world
the heart of which is a raging flame,
and after while the probability is that these
red monsters will burst out of their impris.
onment of centuries, and it will be blaze
that will be seen in other worlds. But after
while these flames will begin to expire and
they will go down, and the round globe will
be living coal, and after that the living coal
will take on an ashen hue. Then it will begin
to smoke, and the mountains will smoke,
and the valleys will smoke, and
the islands will smoke, and the seas will
smoke. and the five continents will
be five pillars or smoke, ana then
these columns Of vapor all begin to lose their
density. and thev will lessen, aid they can
hardly bs seen now as from the sky galleries
the inhabitants Of other worlds watch them
Finally there will be oniv one curling
vapor of smoke. Then that will vanish,
and there will be nothing left
but the charred hulk of burned out world,
the corpse Of dead star, the ashes Of an e1
tinguiShed planet, fallen pillar OF smoke
But that will not hurt any Of your invest
ments if you have made the Lord your por
tion. From your heavenly home you can
look down upon dismantled, disrupted and
demolished Garth without any perturbation
When wrapped in fire the realms of ether
glow,
And Heavens last thunder shakes the earth
below,
Thou undismayed shalt DER the ruins smile
And light thy torch at Natures funeral
pile.